Barnet have added further depth to their midfield with the signing of former Aldershot and Reading winger Adam Mekki on a short-term contract.

Mekki, 22, arrives after leaving the Shots at the end of last season following five years with the club.

The Chester-born wideman can play on either flank but was used predominantly on the left-hand side of the Shots midfield last season.

Reflecting on his move, Mekki told the club's website: “It has been a bit of a stressful summer but it has all paid off now and hopefully Barnet and I can kick on together. It is an exciting time in my career and I am looking forward to being part of what will hopefully be a very successful Barnet team.” 

And Mekki, who has been training with the Bees at The Hive for the last week, has been known to Allen for some time.

He explained: “Funnily enough I have known Martin Allen since I was about seven years old. I was at Reading with his son Charlie so we’ve always been in contact but I’ve never worked with him, so I’m looking forward to seeing a side of him that I’ve never seen before.” 

Starting his career at Reading, Mekki joined Aldershot's youth setup in 2006 before making his first-team debut in 2011 against Macclesfield Town.

The 5ft 9in winger went on to make 95 appearances for the Shots in all competitions, scoring six times.

As a youngster, Mekki gained first-team experience with a string of loan spells in 2011, turning out for Oxford City, Carshalton Athletic, Dorchester Town and Basingstoke Town.

After making 26 appearances for the Conference side last term, Mekki was offered a new contract but was unable to agree terms with Andy Scott's side and was released.

Speaking after Saturday's 5-0 win over Chester, head coach Martin Allen was non-committal on whether there would be any more additions.

He said: "I’m always looking, it’s my job and my hobby to go and watch football matches and find players, it’s what I do and what I like to do. At the moment it’s going to be difficult to improve [on] these players, we’ve got quality on the bench and we’ve got a couple of quality players in the stand which are unfortunate not to be on the bench.

"It would be a difficult thing to go to the chairman at the moment to go and say ‘I want another player’ but we’ll see."